Duration: 15 minutes. A modern concerto grosso in three movements. Commissioned by the Esterházy Orchestra, and first performed at their inaugural concert in the Banqueting House, Whitehall, in October 1985, conducted by John Blood. Broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in 1987 by the Ulster Orchestra, conducted by Vernon Handley.

Written 1978–9. A ballet in six movements. The boy of the title, isolated at the start, sets off optimistically to change the world; dances with different characters, endures trials and disappointments, and eventually finds his true identity. The character of the boy is played by two identical dancers who merge at the end. An absorbing allegory about coming out as a gay man.

A one – movement concert overture, written in 1984 after a visit to friends in Prague, and dedicated to the people of that beautiful city. The spiritual warmth characteristic of Smetana, Dvorák & Martinu gradually sweeps away harsher and more impersonal music.

Commissioned by the BBC and first performed on 17th November 2007 at St David’s Hall, Cardiff by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales conducted by Jac van Steen. Begun in 2006 and completed in September 2007, this is the first large orchestral piece from Giles Swayne since The song of Leviathan of 1988. It stems from the composer’s fury that the human race has so maltreated the planet. The dogs of war is a long, increasingly savage movement which conveys the restlessly destructive power of human activity. In Silent Spring a treacly, insidious waltz gradually invades and destroys a forest dawn-chorus. Near the end, each creature sings one last desperate phrase; each is chopped down by a killer blow from the orchestra. The finale, Threnody, is a lament for Man’s extinction. It begins with a piccolo – the last bird in the world – singing its heart out in a dead landscape. Eight variations follow, the last of which is a passacaglia with eight short variations of its own – which return us to the melody of the opening.